A colleague forwarded me this press release (thanks, Tom) correctly concluding it was ripe for blog fodder. It comes from an unusual source, it’s a press release from the Avery Dennison Graphics & Reflective Products Division. You probably know Avery from their labels that work so seamlessly with Microsoft Word. Dave Leach, who loves in Chicago, has a odd hobby — yes, that’s me saying that — he collects “world’s largest items,” that is the biggest one of a particular thing. I imagine he’s got got one helluva big rec. room. Apparently not content to just find the biggest things, this time he commissioned one: A G. Heileman Old Style beer can. Leach hired Road Rage Designs, a wide format graphics provider. They, in turn, went with Avery for the wrap.

From the press release:

The Avery Graphics MPI 1007 EZ RS was printed with 1970’s Old Style Beer® graphics. Leach chose the Old Style Beer Graphics as a tribute to his father, whose favorite beer is the vintage brew originally manufactured by The G. Heileman Brewing Company, now owned by the Pabst Brewing Company.

“We chose Avery Graphics MPI 1007 EZ RS vinyl for this unique opportunity because it is easy to work with and the overlaminate really made the colors in the graphics pop on such a large scale application,” says Kris Harris, vice president of Road Rage Designs.

Here’s some photos of the new can.

Putting on the beer label.

Leaving Ohio for Chicago.

On the road.

 
But if he’s really going for the world’s largest can, what about these?

This six-pack of Old Style Beer cans certainly look bigger. They’re at the old G. Heileman brewery in La Crosse, Wisconsin, which is now the City Brewery. First created around 1970, they were painted over in 2000, only to be recreated three years later, in 2003, but as the new brewery’s biggest seller, LaCrosse Lager cans.

They’re 54 feet tall, and look much thicker, too. It’s especially noticeable in the photo above, where you can see the size compared to the van parked in front of them. For Leach, perhaps the La Crosse cans aren’t really cans, but storage tanks, and so they don’t count. His can, on the other hand, looks to be a thin aluminum and very much resembles a beer can from top to bottom.